Pardee 2-24

Got to the lake, and had little to no energy. Launched anyhow, and hooked up both rods right away. Two 2# trout right out of the gate. Not bad, felt a little better about life and the prospect of the day ahead. Put both rods back out, both go off again. Land one of the two, same cookie cutter size planters. Put one rod out and paddle a bit, cast second out, and first one goes off. Trout 4 on the clip. Decide to head for creek arm for bass. Trolling broken back rapalas, again was the ticket, got three smb and one lmb. Grabbed my last trout on the way to the truck. Forgot camera at home, and did not keep any of the bass, they were not lunkers anyhow, but turned out to be a descent day on the water, and the rain held off for me the whole time. Will be back soon, and bring a camera this time.

Awesome!!!  Sounds like the trout bite is finally picking up again    Thanks for the report!

Rich, we must have missed you.  Wish I'd have known you were coming cuz I'd have called out to you.  What creek were you fishing for bass in?

Barefoot1/Jeff and I were there from 8-3 with ZERO fish caught.  We trolled to the river arm and slightly into it and then back.  I lost a decent fish at the boat but that was it for both of us.  Pretty pathetic I know.  We both came to the conclusion that we have some sort of bad juju going on with us.

I was fishing straight out from the launch, I was OTW ahead of you guys. I then went up the main arm, dang near all the way up! I google earth'd it, and it is almost 6 miles up to where I called it quits. I got out and looked for some mushrooms for a while too up there, did not find any worth gathering. The hot rapala was a bule/silver J-11. The trout came on the black/silver j11 and one on a panther martin yellow/red w chrome blade.  I was on the radio tryin to call out until about 7:45, got some guys at Commanche, but figured I was the lone wolf from NCKA.  It was a last minute thing, and no big deal, we can hit it another day. I think after this next storm system, and a few nice days, that lake will be rockin again.  All the trout I caught had snow white meat, not very appetizing, but good for the smoker to make snacks for other kayaking trips!

Montana N8V you are killin me with this report.  I have the stink of bad ju ju all over me as Dilbeck mentioned.  Must get rid of it before Berryessa and Clear Lake events!  If I have an opening to get back up to Pardee in March I will PM you for advice/mojo bag etc.!!---Jeff

LMAO, there is no mojo, just brokenback rapala's!

Hey Rich, I have yet to still catch some trout on my J7 firetiger jointed rapalas.
What line weight are you using and how fast are you moving? I've tried to vary
my speed and all but I have not caught any trout yet. I am about to give up on it
for I've trolled many hours with it and have used it in many lakes with no success.
Any tips bro? Congrats on all your catches bro.

Jedmo

LMAO, there is no mojo, just brokenback rapala's!

Of course we trolled J-5s, J-7s, and J-9s, but not J-11s.  It figures though because the only fish I hooked up with was on an F-9.

Jed, I usually use two dif colors or sizes until I find what works. If they don't then I go to Panther Martin spinners. But for rapalas, I just troll until I see a little action in the tip, and keep that speed. Same with the spinners. Just seems to work well for me. I have 6# spider mono on one rod, and the other one is 15# mono. I have used my rockcod rod with 80# braid but use a 4' leader to the lure when I troll, usually 6# test. I like to focus on the shorelines, and hug as tight to them as I can, most of the truck trout we are fishing for are used to a shallow depth, and for the most part, have just been planted. Even fish that were planted the week before, will be holding up in the shallows for the most part. I can hear people right now screaming, "but Montana, but Montana, but the lake is turning over!" LOL. K, go fish deep, let me know how that works for ya. There is a reason a lot of lakes quit planting fish when the heat gets a certain temp. Then, the fish that did make it through to then, will go deep, but by then, other fishing is up and going, and those trout get soft and mushy anyhow, so set the downrigger and troll for them if that is what a guy really wants. In the summer months, the first hour of daylight and the last 45 minutes are when the fish that have figured how to forage will be near the surface feeding, and you can get them on the troll up top, as soon as the sun hits the water, they duck down. When the summer temps get warm, I head to the high mountain lakes, and you can still catch fish on the troll, on the top, all day long. One of the reasons, the DFG and other associations, are planting those lakes on a regular basis.  Hope that helps Jed, and I know there is going to be a lot of people that disagree with me, but that is ok.

The only reason I got some Firetiger Rapalas was because of positive reports on this site.

I've always caught nice trout up in the high lakes on jointed, floating, and countdown Rapalas in Rainbow and Brown patterns. They have outperformed all other lures - for me.

I still haven't caught on the Firetiger, and it seems counter intuitive that a trout would look at that color scheme in clear mountain water and think "that looks like the minnow I ate for dinner last nite"

Can't wait until ice-out and the real trout are on the line!

I agree. I only hav eone fire tiger rapala. It only gets used at Amador. Other than that, just the rainbow, and dual color rapalas for me. Black/silver will catch just about any species of fish.

late but very impressed nice slay you did there N8V! i get frustrated after seeing so many on th FF and not a effin hit!= i cry&i quit!   but i DO have 1 blk/slvr. & 'bow Rap'= IT'S ON!! 

Get out there and drag 'em around Adam!